Pastoral Resources

In the U.S. preschool children make up the largest TV audience with a weekly average viewing time of at least 30.4 hours. By the age of 17 the average American child has logged 15,000 hours watching TV, the equivalent of 2 years, day and night.

During one of his political campaigns, a delegation called on Theodore Roosevelt at his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The President met them with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up.

“Ah, gentlemen,” he said, “come down to the barn and we will talk while I do some work.”

At the barn, Roosevelt picked up a pitchfork and looked around for the hay. Then he called out, “John, where’s all the hay?”

“Sorry, sir,” John called down from the hayloft. “I ain’t had time to toss it back down again after you pitched it up while the Iowa folks were here.”

When 16-year old Eliza married the 20-year old tailor, he had never been to school. Others might have written his education off as a lost cause, but Eliza didn’t. She taught him to read, write, and spell. Those days were difficult, but he proved to be a fast learner. In fact, he learned so well that years later he was elected president of the United States! When he ran for a second term he lost, but refused to give up. Instead, he won a seat in the U.S. Senate. Who? our 17th president, Andrew Johnson.

President Calvin Coolidge didn’t like to attend dinners, but he was prevailed upon to attend one function at which he was to be presented with a cane.

The man making the presentation went on at great length and finished up by saying, “The mahogany from which this cane is fashioned is as solid as the rock-bound coast of Maine, as beautiful as the sun-kissed shores of California!”

Mr. Coolidge accepted the cane, posed for a picture, then stood there for a few moments, staring at the cane. The audience sat hushed. Finally, the President spoke.

“Birch,” he said, and sat down.

President Calvin Coolidge didn’t like to attend dinners, but he was prevailed upon to attend one function at which he was to be presented with a cane.

The man making the presentation went on at great length and finished up by saying, “The mahogany from which this cane is fashioned is as solid as the rock-bound coast of Maine, as beautiful as the sun-kissed shores of California!”

Mr. Coolidge accepted the cane, posed for a picture, then stood there for a few moments, staring at the cane. The audience sat hushed. Finally, the President spoke.

“Birch,” he said, and sat down.

Grace Coolidge, the wife of President Calvin Coolidge, tried to surprise her husband by having his portrait painted. When it was finished, she hung it in the library of the White House. Later the same morning the President happened to walk into the library accompanied by a senator. They stared at the picture together in silence. Finally Coolidge commented quietly: “I think so, too.”

As Vice President, Richard Nixon came upon President Eisenhower one day signing an immense stack of mail in his office. Mr. Nixon watched quietly for a moment and then asked the General how, with all that mail, he ever found time to think about the big problems of the country.

Ike replied: “Dick, I really haven’t spent that much time on these letters. In fact, in some instances they probably don’t even say exactly what I want them to. But you’ve got to learn that, if you get bogged down in all the fine print and little detail you’ll never get anything accomplished as President.

When former President Gerald Ford visited Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma several years ago, he had breakfast with some student leaders. As one of the students stepped out of an elevator, her heel caught on the carpet and she crashed into Ford. She repeatedly apologized as he helped her to her feet, but the former president smiled sympathetically.

“Don’t worry, young lady,” he said. “I understand perfectly.”

In his autobiography, Just as I Am, Billy Graham tells about a conversation he had with John F. Kennedy shortly after his election:

On the way back to the Kennedy house, the president-elect stopped the car and turned to me.

“Do you believe in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ?’ he asked.

“I most certainly do.”

“Well, does my church believe it?”

“They have it in their creeds.”

“They don’t preach it,” he said. “They don’t tell us much about it. I’d like to know what you think.”

“I explained what the Bible said about Christ coming the first time, dying on the Cross, rising from the dead, and then promising that he would come back again. ‘Only then,’ I said, ‘are we going to have permanent world peace.’”

“Very interesting,” he said, looking away. “We’ll have to talk more about that someday.” And he drove on.”

Several years later, the two met again, at the 1963 National Prayer Breakfast. “I had the flu,” Graham remembers. “After I gave my short talk, and he gave his, we walked out of the hotel to his car together, as was always our custom. At the curb, he turned to me.”

“Billy, could you ride back to the White House with me? I’d like to see you for a minute.”

“Mr. President, I’ve got a fever,” I protested. “Not only am I weak, but I don’t want to give you this thing. Couldn’t we wait and talk some other time?”

It was a cold, snowy day, and I was freezing as I stood there without my overcoat.

“Of course,’ he said graciously.”

But the two would never meet again. Later that year, Kennedy was shot dead. Graham comments, “His hesitation at the car door, and his request, haunt me still. What was on his mind? Should I have gone with him? It was an irrecoverable moment.”

While visiting in West Berlin I stopped at Kennedy Platz, the site of President John F. Kennedy’s famous speech. The tour guide was recalling the climax of that impassioned address—the part when the President paused and then cried, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” The crowd that day in 1963 was swept up in the emotion of his words and ignored their meaning until later. Kennedy had wanted to say, “Ich bin Berliner!” or “I am a Berliner!” But what he actually said was, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” or “I am a jelly doughnut!”

During the hard days of the Civil War, President Lincoln made frequent visits to the hospitals that were always overcrowded with the suffering.

On one occasion he stopped to speak to one of the patients, a mere boy of 16, who had been mortally wounded and was nearing death.

President Lincoln, taking the thin, white hand, said, "My poor boy, what can I do for you?"

With a beseeching look the fellow turned his eyes to the homely, kindly face and asked, "Will you write to my mother for me?"

"That I will," answered the President, and calling for a pen, ink and paper, he seated himself and wrote a long letter. When it was finished, the President rose, saying, "I will mail this as soon as I get back to my office. Now is there anything else I can do for you?"

In some way the boy had come to know it was the President, and so, looking at him in the most appealing sort of way, he asked, "Will you stay with me till it is all over? I will not be long, and I want to hold onto your hand."

That was too much for the great-hearted President to resist. The tears came to his eyes, and he sat down by him and took hold of his hand. The fellow did not move or speak a word. This was some time before four o'clock, and it was long after six before the end came.

In October 1864, word came to President Abraham Lincoln of a Mrs. Bixby, a Boston widow whose five sons had all been killed fighting in the Civil War. Lincoln later wrote his condolences:

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save.

I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully, Abraham Lincoln

How beautiful the story would be if it ended here with the simple, literary elegance that was Lincoln’s alone. But there is more. The story took an ironic turn just a few weeks after the letter was sent. No sooner had Mrs. Bixby received her letter when it was leaked to the press by someone in the White House. It was proclaimed a masterpiece for some weeks until a reporter went to the records of the Adjutant General and discovered that the President had been given bad information.

Mrs. Bixby had not lost all five of her sons in battle. One was killed in action at Fredericksburg. One was killed in action at Petersburg. One was taken prisoner at Gettysburg and later exchanged and returned to his mother in good health. One deserted to the enemy. One deserted his post and fled the country.

Word got out, and the press, as well as the rest of the Union, became divided in its support of the President. Some said he had been innocently duped. Others said his feelings were sincere if the cause was not.

Carl Sandburg, in his exhaustive biography of Lincoln, has the last word:

Whether all five had died on the field of battle, or only two, four of her sons had been poured away into the river of war. The two who had deserted were as lost to her as though dead. The one who had returned had fought at Gettysburg....She deserved some kind of token, some award approaching the language Lincoln had employed. Lincoln was not deceived.

How like the Bixby family is each one of us: a mixture of success and failure, honor and shame. The only man worthy of honor is Jesus Christ. Yet knowing the whole story of our lives, Christ will honor those who serve him.

Once when President Franklin D. Roosevelt was preparing a speech, he needed some economic statistics to back up a point he was trying to make. His advisers said it would take six months to get accurate figures.

“In that case, I’ll just use these rough estimates,” FDR said, and he wrote down some numbers in his text. “They’re reasonable figures and they support my point.

“Besides,” he added as an afterthought, “it will keep my critics busy for at least six month just to prove me wrong.”

But in all things commending ourselves...by kindness,...by love unfeigned. 2 Corinthians 6:4, 6

When William McKinley was President of the United States, he had to make a decision about the appointment of an ambassador to a foreign country. Two candidates were equally qualified, so McKinley was still a Congressman, he had observed an inconsiderate action by one of the men. He recalled boarding a streetcar at the rush hour and getting the last vacant seat. Soon an elderly woman got on, carrying a heavy clothesbasket. No one got up to offer her a seat, so she walked the length of the car and stood in the aisle, hardly able to keep her balance as the vehicle swayed from side to side. One of the men McKinley was later to consider for ambassador was sitting next to where the woman was standing. Instead of getting up and helping her, he deliberately shifted his newspaper so it would look like he hadn’t seen her. When McKinley noticed this, he walked down the aisle, graciously took her basket, and offered her his seat. The man was unaware that anyone was watching, but that one little act of selfishness would later deprive him of perhaps the crowning honor of his lifetime. - H.G.B.

Nothing in the world

Can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not;

Nothing is more common

Than unsuccessful men

With talent.

Genius will not:

Unrewarded genius

Is almost a proverb.

Education will not;

The world is full of

Educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination

Alone are important

Anonymous

Press on.

Nothing in the world

Can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not;

Nothing is more common

Than unsuccessful men

With talent.

Genius will not:

Unrewarded genius

Is almost a proverb.

Education will not;

The world is full of

Educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination

Alone are important

- anonymous

Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length,

Pressed so intently, it seems beyond strength,

Pressed in the body, and pressed in the soul,

Pressed in the mind till the dark surges roll,

Pressure by foes, and a pressure by friends,

Pressure on pressure till life nearly ends.

Pressed into knowing no helper but God,

Pressed into loving the staff and the rod,

Pressed into liberty where nothing clings,

Pressed into faith for impossible things,

Pressed into living a life in the Lord,

Pressed into living a Christ-life outpoured.

Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length;

Pressed so intensely, it seems beyond strength;

Pressed in the body, and pressed in the soul;

Pressed in the mind, till the dark surges roll.

Pressure by foes, and pressure by friends—

Pressure on pressure, till life nearly ends.

Pressed into knowing no helper but God;

Pressed into loving the staff and the rod.

Pressed into liberty where nothing clings;

Pressed into faith for impossible things.

Pressed into tasting the joy of the Lord;

Pressed into loving a Christlife outpoured.

—author unknown

Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length;

Pressed so intensely, it seems beyond strength;

Pressed in the body, and pressed in the soul;

Pressed in the mind, till the dark surges roll.

Pressure by foes, and pressure by friends—

Pressure on pressure, till life nearly ends.

Pressed into knowing no helper but God;

Pressed into loving the staff and the rod.

Pressed into liberty where nothing clings;

Pressed into faith for impossible things.

Pressed into tasting the joy of the Lord;

Pressed into loving a Christlife outpoured.

“You don’t go look at where it happened,” said Scott Goodyear, who starts 33rd [speaking of race-car drivers who have been killed in crashes at the Indianapolis 500]. “You don’t watch the films of it on television. You don’t deal with it. You pretend it never happened.” The Speedway operation itself encourages this approach. As soon as the track closes the day of an accident, a crew heads out to paint over the spot where the car hit the wall. Through the years, a driver has never been pronounced dead at the race track. A trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Racing Museum, located inside the 2.5-mile oval, has no memorial to the 40 drivers who have lost their lives here. Nowhere is there even a mention.

Joseph Laitin, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs under Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger, remembers his former boss:

Defense Secretary Schlesinger tended to speak his mind, especially when questioned on matters he considered personal. His prickly manner sometimes carried into routine dealings with the press, often to his advantage. Once, while the Secretary and I sipped coffee at NBC before the start of the “Today” show, I learned that Tom Pettit would be doing the interview. I hastily gave Schlesinger a quick briefing on what he’d probably be subjected to in front of the camera. Pettit had a habit of bullying his guests for a good show. “Don’t let this guy get under your skin with outrageous questions,” I cautioned. “Keep cool and get your points across.”

Just then, Pettit walked in, a clipboard containing his questions tucked under his arm. As they entered the studio, Schlesinger plucked the board from a startled Pettit and glanced at it. “Pretty stupid questions, Pettit,” he said, handing the man back his board. They were on the air 30 seconds later. Pettit was a pussycat.

It seems there was a pretzel stand out front of an office building in New York. One day, a man came out of the building, plunked down a quarter, and then went on his way without taking a pretzel. This happened every day for three weeks. Finally, the old lady running the stand spoke up: “Sir, excuse me. May I have a word with you?

The fellow said: “I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to ask me why I give you a quarter every day and don’t take a pretzel.”

And the woman said, “Not at all. I just want to tell you that the price is now 35 cents.”

Prevention is better than correction, suggests an English study of criminal behavior, and the key may be better training for parents. The Cambridge Study of Delinquent Development tracked 411 London males from ages 8 to 32. It found that a man was most likely to be convicted of criminal behavior if he’d experienced the following between the ages of 8 and 11:

a broken home

low family income

poor housing

antisocial parents and siblings

poor parental supervision

harsh, erratic child-rearing behavior

delinquent friends

problems in school

The study suggests that better training for the parents of young boys, as well as improved preschools, might go a long way toward reducing future crime rates.

Do we help people only after they’ve sinned, or seek to prevent that sin in the first place?

Things you should never say once without thinking twice:

It’s no trouble at all.

I love dogs.

We have plenty of room.

Call me any time.

Is there anything I can do?

My husband is a doctor/lawyer/accountant.

I’ll try anything once.

Of course, bring the kids.

Why don’t you stay for dinner?

If worst comes to worst, you can use mine.

Don’t worry—there’s more where that came from.

Over my dead body, you will!

I was riding with retired Air Force officer Wally Hall. We were approaching the guard house at the entrance to Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, Michigan. Wally was about to give me my first tour of a military base. I wondered how I would get in. Would they ask me a lot of questions and make me wait while they did a security check?

When we arrived at the gate, a burly sergeant waved us through without hesitation, “How did we get in so quickly?” I asked Wally, “This sticker,” he said, pointing to a decal in the corner of the car’s windshield. “It lets me and my guests onto the base.” Because I was with Wally, who had previous clearance, I could get through the gate with no difficulty.

This made me think about getting into heaven. On my own, I wouldn’t stand a chance. I do not deserve the right, and I could never earn it. But when I trusted Jesus as my Savior, I became identified with Him. Because I am “in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6), I have free access to God’s favor in this life and a sure hope of entering heaven’s glory. (v. 7).

Motivational speaker Bill Gove tells a story about Harry, who ran a small appliance store in Phoenix, Arizona. Harry was used to price-shopping by young couples. The would ask detailed questions about features, prices, and model numbers, and one of them always took notes. Harry knew that as soon as they left the store they were going to head for one of the discount appliance dealers to make comparisons. Nevertheless, Harry would patiently answer all their questions, even though it took more than a half hour at times. But when the couple would announce that they were going to look around at some other places, Harry had a standard spiel to deliver. “I know that you’re looking for the best deal you can find,” he would say. “I understand that, because I do the same thing myself. I know you’ll probably go down to Discount Dan’s to compare prices. I know I would. But after you’ve done that, I want you to think of one thing. When you buy from Discount Dan’s, you get an appliance—a good one, I know, because he sells the same appliances we do. But when you buy here, you get one thing you don’t get at Dan’s. You get me. I come with the deal. I stand behind what I sell. I want you to be happy with what you buy. I’ve been here 30 years. I learned the business from my Dad, and I hope to be able to give the business over to my daughter and son-in-law in a few years. So you know one thing for sure—when you buy an appliance from me, you get me with the deal. That means I’ll do everything I can to be sure you never regret doing business with me. That’s a guarantee.” Harry would then wish the couple well and give them a quart of ice cream in appreciation of their stopping at his store.

This is how Bill Gove finishes the story: “Now,” he says, “how far do you think that couple is going to get, with Harry’s speech ringing in their ears and a quart of ice cream on their hands in Phoenix, when it’s 110 degrees in the shade?”

It seems there was a pretzel stand out front of an office building in New York. One day, a man came out of the building, plunked down a quarter, and then went on his way without taking a pretzel. This happened every day for three weeks. Finally, the old lady running the stand spoke up: “Sir, excuse me. May I have a word with you?”

The fellow said: “I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to ask me why I give you a quarter every day and don’t take a pretzel.”

And the woman said, “Not at all, I just want to tell you that the price is now 35 cents.”

As C.S. Lewis indicates: Pride is essentially competitive—is competitive by its very nature—while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good looking, there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.

But what does he (Paul) wish them to learn? That no one be puffed up for his own teacher against another, that is, that they be not lifted up with pride on account of their teachers, and do not abuse their names for the purpose of forming parties, and rending the Church asunder. Observe, too, that pride or haughtiness is the cause and commencement of all contentions, when every one, assuming to himself more than he is entitled to do, is eager to have other in subjection to him.

The Emperor Justinian built the Church of St. Sophia, that gem of human architecture. He collected marble and treasures from all over the world to make it beautiful. At last the moment for dedication arrived. The words uttered by Justinian seemed full of humility as he said that all had been done for the glory of God. But as he allowed his eyes to drink in the beauty of the building, he could hardly contain himself. Someone heard him whisper, "Solomon, I have surpassed thee."

A Christian once served on a parliamentary commission with Professor Thomas H. Huxley. One Sunday they stayed together in a little country inn. "I suppose you are going to church this morning," said Huxley. "I am. I always go to church on the Lord's Day," replied the Christian. Huxley said, "Suppose you sit down and talk with me about religion-simple, experimental religion." Sensing something of heart hunger in the great scientist, the associate replied, "If you mean it, I will." Then he spoke out of a rich, experimental knowledge of the saving and satisfying power of Christ. Huxley listened intently. Grasping the hand of the Christian, he said with deep feeling, "If I could believe what you have said about the cross of Christ and His pardoning love, I would be willing to give my right hand." He really didn't have to make that sacrifice. All he had to give up was the belief that the eye, the ear, the mind, could know all that there is to know and experience. Had he only been willing to swallow the pride of reason and to accept God's free gift, he too could have experienced the power of God unto salvation.

Again, it may be seen from this promise that God, to some extent, has seen fit to condition His action upon the believer’s prayer; for the Scripture says; “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it”; and this is the secret of all true evangelism.… It is, then, the teaching of Scripture that the action of the mighty power of God in convicting and illuminating the unsaved is also, in a large measure, dependent upon the priestly intercession of the believer.

The great 19th century British statesman and prime minister, William Gladstone, once said, “One thing I have against the clergy both of the country and in the towns. I think they are not severe enough on congregations. They do not sufficiently lay upon the souls and consciences of their hearers their moral obligations, and probe their hearts and bring up their whole lives and actions to the bar of conscience.

“The class of sermons which I think are most needed, are of the class which once offended Lord Melbourne. He was seen coming from church in the country in a great fume. Finding a friend, he exclaimed, ‘It is too bad I have always been a supporter of the church, and I have always upheld the clergy, but it is really too bad to have to listen to a sermon like that we have heard this morning. Why, the preacher actually insisted upon applying religion to a man’s personal life!” Gladstone concluded, “That is the kind of preaching I like best, the kind of preaching which men need most, but it is, also, the kind of which they get the least.”

The following letter was found in a baking-power can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of drinking water on a very long and seldom-used trail across Nevada’s Amargosa Desert:

“This pump is all right as of June 1932. I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last five years. But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up. There’s enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. Pour about one-fourth and let her soak to wet the leather. Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy. You’ll git water. The well has never run dry. Have faith. When you git watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller.

(signed) Desert Pete.

P.S. Don’t go drinking the water first. Prime the pump with it and you’ll git all you can hold

“A Florida State University study reported that a typical prime-time hour (of television) contains an average of 1.6 references to intercourse, 1.2 references to prostitution and rape, 4.7 sexual innuendoes, 1.8 kisses, and 1 suggestive gesture. In all, TV characters talk about sex or display sexual behavior 15 times an hour, or once every four minutes.”

A. People must have reasons for change

1. They must see the value to them of the change

2. The plan must be understood by them

3. They must be involved in the process

B. People must be prepared for change, don’t just drop it on them. Introduce the ideas/changes months ahead of time

C. People must be involved in the process of change. If people are involved in the planning stage, they’ll be involved in the implementation. Therefore, don’t do too much for them.

D. People must be exposed to models of change.

1. Tapes and books (Men listen to tapes, women read)

2. Evaluative experiences (experience is worthless unless you evaluate it)

3. Educational conferences and seminars

4. Expose them to infectious people

Gordon McDonald, Ordering Your Private World, pp. 94-5

In his book In Search of Excellence, Tom Peters outlines eight principles of operation that are practiced by the most excellent, innovative corporations. They are:

Act quickly.

Serve the customer.

Encourage creativity and innovations.

Know the value of your employees

Stay close to your business.

Do what you do best.

Don’t get fat at the top.

Adhere to established values while allowing employee independence.

Peters points out that some of these characteristics are so basic that they are like “motherhood” and “apple pie.” They bore to yawns the average business student. On the other hand, says Peters, these qualities are almost conspicuously absent in most large companies.

1. An Old Testament narrative usually does not directly teach a doctrine.

2. An Old Testament narrative usually illustrates a doctrine or doctrines taught propositionally elsewhere.

3. Narratives record what happened—not necessarily what should have happened or what ought to happen every time. Therefore, not every narrative has an individual identifiable moral of the story.

4. What people do in narratives is not necessarily a good example for us. Frequently, it is just the opposite.

5. Most of the characters in the Old Testament narratives are far from perfect and their actions are too.

6. We are not always told at the end of a narrative whether what happened was good or bad. We are expected to be able to judge that on the basis of what God has taught us directly and categorically already in the Scripture.

7. All narratives are selective and incomplete. Not all the relevant details are always given (cf. John 21:25). What does appear in the narrative is everything that the inspired author thought important for us to know.

8. Narratives are not written to answer all our theological questions. They have particular, specific limited purposes and deal with certain issues, leaving others to be dealt with elsewhere, in other ways.

9. Narratives may teach either explicitly (by clearly stating something) or implicitly (by clearly implying something without actually stating it).

10. In the final analysis, God is the hero of all biblical narratives.

1. A reality of conditions that do not now exist

2. Always entails change

3. Is always God given, not man-centered

4. Focuses on what others think is impossible

5. Always involves risk; invites criticism

6. Always makes room for God’s known will

7. Should not get derailed by fads, trends, methods

8. Never acquiesces to the status quo

9. Must never be side-stepped by human tradition over biblical truth

10. Details of vision must never be set in concrete.

A three-year-old boy went with his dad to see a new litter of kittens. On returning home, he breathlessly informed his mother, “There were two boy kittens and two girl kittens.”

“How did you know that?” his mother asked.

“Daddy picked them up and looked underneath,” he replied. “I think it’s printed on the bottom.”

In the Waco, Neb., Peace Lutheran Church bulletin: “Last Sunday’s bulletin should have read: ‘Erich Honecker, the deposed communist leader of East Germany,’ rather than ‘the decomposed communist leader.’”

Correction printed in the Russellville, Ky., News-Democrat & Leader: “Dorothy Combs listed in the District Court news pleaded not guilty, not guilty.”

From the Fresno, Calif., Bee: An item about the Massachusetts budget crisis made reference to new taxes that will help put Massachusetts ‘back in the African-American.’ The item should have said ‘back in the black.’”

In the Chicago Tribune: “The last sentence of Mike Royko’s column was omitted in some editions of Thursday’s Tribune. The last line should have said: ‘eeeeyaaach.’ The Tribune regrets the error.” -

Andrew Bonar (great man of prayer) had three rules:

1. Not to speak to any man before speaking to Jesus;

2. Not to do anything with his hands until he had been on his knees;

3. Not to read the papers until he had read his Bible.

In a daring escape from a Sydney, Australia, jail, a prisoner climbed underneath the hood of a truck. At the trucks’ next stop, he clambered out and found himself in the yard of another prison four miles from the first. - UPI

Thomas Costain’s history, The Three Edwards, described the life of Raynald III, a fourteenth-century duke in what is now Belgium. Grossly overweight, Raynald was commonly called by his Latin nickname, Crassus, which means “fat.”

After a violent quarrel, Raynald’s younger brother Edward led a successful revolt against him. Edward captured Raynald but did not kill him. Instead, he built a room around Raynald in the Nieuwkerk castle and promised him he could regain his title and property as soon as he was able to leave the room.

This would not have been difficult for most people since the room had several windows and a door of near-normal size, and none was locked or barred. The problem was Raynald’s size. To regain his freedom, he needed to lose weight. But Edward knew his older brother, and each day he sent a variety of delicious foods. Instead of dieting his way out of prison, Raynald grew fatter.

When Duke Edward was accused of cruelty, he had a ready answer: “My brother is not a prisoner. He may leave when he so wills.”

Raynald stayed in that room for ten years and wasn’t released until after Edward died in battle. By then his health was so ruined he died within a year … a prisoner of his own appetite.

Dave Wilkenson

One day, after a gospel meeting in a prison in Greece, the chief of chaplains of the prisons was discussing with the preacher the wonderful response by the prisoners of Greece to the message of the Gospel: "When you deal with a prisoner, you do not need to persuade him that he is a sinner. His imprisonment is a proof of it. But there are many out of jail who should be in, and because they are out they argue all is well with them and they need no Savior."

As professional golfer Ray Floyd was getting ready to tap in a routine 9-inch putt, he saw the ball move ever so slightly. According to the rule book, if the ball moves in this way the golfer must take a penalty stroke. Yet consider the situation. Floyd was among the leaders in a tournament offering a top prize of $108,000. To acknowledge that the ball had moved could mean he would lose his chance for big money. Writer David Holahan describes as follows what others might have done:

“The athlete ducks his head and flails wildly with his hands, as if being attacked by a killer bee; next, he steps back from the ball, rubbing his eye for a phantom speck of dust, all the while scanning his playing partners and the gallery for any sign that the ball’s movement has been detected by others. If the coast is clear, he taps the ball in for his par.”

Ray Floyd, however, didn’t do that. He assessed himself a penalty stroke and wound up with a bogey on the hole.

In his book, Science Speaks, Peter Stoner applies the modern science of probability to just eight prophecies regarding Christ. He says, “The chance that any man might have ...fulfilled all eight prophecies is one in 10 to the 17th. That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.” (one hundred quadrillion).

Stoner suggests that “we take 10 to the 17th silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state 2 feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly... Blindfold a man and tell him he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up [that one marked silver dollar.] What chance would he have of getting the right one?”

Stoner concludes, “Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing those eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man,...providing they wrote them in their own wisdom.”

Experimental psychologists have long been studying the thinking process in solving problems. Here are some approaches you can use to improve your score as a problem solver:

1. Consider the elements of the problem several times, until a pattern emerges that encompasses them all. This helps you get the total picture before you become lost in details.

2. Don’t make a hasty judgment. Avoid succumbing to the first interpretation that comes to mind.

3. Try rearranging the elements of your problem. This may help uncover a familiar pattern previously masked by an unfamiliar arrangement.

4. Attempt a different approach. A proficient problem solver has learned not to persist in one approach if it’s obviously not working. He or she will jump from one approach to another until a solution is found.

5. Take “time out” when you’re stuck. This will permit you to get away from the problem and perhaps to be able to come back to it with a new perspective.

6. Discuss your problem with others. This will cause you to consider aspects you might otherwise ignore. A listener can serve as a useful feedback source to reveal inconsistency in your reasoning if it exists.

You cannot force a solution to a problem to come to mind. But you can keep your mind open so you can recognize possible paths to solutions when they present themselves.

Edward deBono, the Oxford exponent of lateral thinking, suggests that when we can’t solve a problem using traditional methods, we should try “detours and reversals,” anything that will give us a different angle from which to ponder solutions. To illustrate, he tells this story about a problem faced by executives of a large company.

The company had moved into a new skyscraper and discovered that the builder apparently had not put in enough elevators.

Employees were disgruntled because there were over long waits for the elevators, especially at both ends of the working day.

The company got a wide cross-section of the staff together and asked them to sit down and solve the problem. The task force came up with four possible solutions:

1. Speed up the elevators, or arrange for them to stop at certain floors during rush periods.

2. Stagger working hours to reduce elevator demand at either end of the day.

3. Install mirrors around entrances to all elevators.

4. Drive a new elevator shaft through the building. Which solution would you have chosen?

According to Professor deBono, if you chose the first, second, or fourth solutions, then you are a “vertical” or traditional thinker. If you chose the third possibility, then you are a “lateral thinker.” The vertical thinker takes the narrow view; the lateral thinker has a broader view.

After some consideration, the company chose the third solution.

It worked.

“People became so preoccupied with looking at themselves (or surreptitiously at others),” said deBono, “that they no longer noticed the wait for the elevator. The problem was not so much the lack of elevators as the impatience of the employees.”

1. Problems often provide us with greater opportunities

2. Problems can promote our spiritual maturity (Ps 105:16ff)

3. Problems prove our integrity (1 Pt 3:15)

4. Problems produce a sense of dependence

5. Problems prepare our hearts for ministry (more empathetic)

I’ll say this for adversity: people seem to be able to stand it, and that’s more than I can say for prosperity. - Kin Hubbard

Some of the problems of Christianity strike me as being so blatantly rational-belief-destroying that there is almost a sense of farce in seeing its devotees trying to wriggle from under them. Chief among these is the problem of explaining how somebody’s death two thousand years ago can wash away my sins. When you combine this with the doctrine of the Trinity and the implication that the sacrificial lamb is God Himself (or Itself) and that this therefore makes things all right with this self-same God, the rational mind boggles.

In his book Being the Best (Thomas Nelson Publishers), Denis Waitley has some interesting observations about procrastination.

“When you stop to think about it,” he says, “there is no such thing as a future decision. You face only present decisions that will affect what will happen in the future. Procrastinators wait for just the right moment to decide. If you wait for the perfect moment, you become a security seeker who is running in place, going through the motions, and getting deeper in a rut.

“If I wait for every objection to be overcome, I will attempt nothing. My personal motto is, Stop Stewing and Start Doing. I can’t be depressed and active at the same time. I like changing the word motivation slightly to reflect a personal commitment to take charge of today and make it the best day I can—motive plus action equals motive-action.

“Everybody is looking for new ways to get motivated. Companies and corporations pay sizable fees to consultants who try to make their personnel more productive and fire up their salespeople. A motivated person things, I’m going to try it. But motivation must turn into motive-action, or nothing will happen.’

“That is the quandary of the unknown poet who wrote:

I spent a fortune

On a trampoline,

A stationary bike

And a rowing machine

Complete with gadgets

To read my pulse,

And gadgets to prove

My progress results,

And others to show

The miles I’ve charted—

But they left off the gadget

To get me started!

“The gadget that can get you started is motive-action.

“Try it and see!”

Gloria Pitzer has written this clever little poem:

Procrastination is my sin

It brings me naught but sorrow.

I know that I should stop it

In fact, I will…tomorrow.

When James Garfield (later President of the U.S.) was principal of Hiram College in Ohio, a father asked him if the course of study could be simplified so that his son might be able to go through by a shorter route. “Certainly.”

Garfield replied. “But it all depends on what you want to make of your boy. When God wants to make an oak tree, He takes a hundred years. When He wants to make a squash he requires only two months.”

We are producing too many squashes and not enough oak trees in our day.

Many years ago during a Knicks-Bullets playoff game, one of the Bullets came up from behind the great Walt Frazier and punched him in the face. Strangely, the referee called a foul on Frazier. Frazier didn’t complain. His expression never changed. He simply called for the ball and put in seven straight shots to win the game, an amazing display of productive anger. If you want to get huffy about it, it was a great moral lesson as well.

A professional boxer was converted to Christ. He felt it was wrong to continue hitting people but only knew boxing as a profession. Sought counsel of the deacons. One responded, “Don’t see why you can’t continue. Bible says that it’s better to give than to receive.”

A well-known professional golfer was playing in a tournament with President Gerald Ford, fellow pro Jack Nicklaus, and Billy Graham. After the round was over, one of the other pros on the tour asked, “Hey, what was it like playing with the President and Billy Graham?” The pro said with disgust, “I don’t need Billy Graham stuffing religion down my throat!” With that he headed for the practice tee. His friend followed, and after the golfer had pounded out his fury on a bucket of golf balls, he asked, “Was Billy a little rough on you out there?” The pro sighed and said with embarrassment, “No, he didn’t even mention religion.” Astonishingly, Billy Graham had said nothing about God, Jesus, or religion, yet the pro stomped away after the game accusing Billy of trying to ram religion down his throat.

Works toward a common goal

Develops its members’ skills

Efficiently uses its time and talents

Embraces the diversity of its members

Is committed to continuous improvement

Builds morale internally

Performs effectively and produces results

Accepts praise and criticism

Cooperates rather than competes

Maintains a positive attitude toward everyone’s ideas

Stays on task

Uses resources wisely

Communicates openly

Teaches and learns from one another

Resolves conflicts effectively

Welcomes challenges

Shares pride in its accomplishments

Celebrates successes

In 1832, French engineer Ferdin and Marie Lesseps were traveling in the Mediterranean when one of the passengers became sick and the ship was quarantined. Lesseps was an active man, so the confinement was terribly frustrating for him. The many long hours aboard that isolated vessel, however, gave him time to read the memoirs of Charles le Pere, a man who had studied the feasibility of building a canal from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. That volume prompted Lesseps to devise in his own mind a detailed plan for the construction of the Suez Canal. When it was finally built under his leadership some 30 years later, it brought invaluable service to the world. That quarantine had proven to be immensely profitable.

The theological student was playing "Stump the Professor." He asked his instructor, a widely recognized scholar and author, to state in a few words his most profound theology.

The academician thought a moment, then replied, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

Centuries earlier a similar scene took place in Jerusalem. A theological "hot shot" approached a country preacher with the toughest question of the day: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

In this case the theologian was playing "Stump the Bumpkin." After all, how could a backwoods itinerant possibly answer the question that the finest religious minds in the country couldn't?

That the preacher answered was a surprise; but what he answered was the real shocker. "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.'This is the first and greatest commandment...."

The answer Jesus gave in Mat 22:34-40 was not at all unlike the answer of the modern theologian. Just as children in Bible class today learn to sing "Jesus Loves Me" from the earliest age, children in first century Palestine learned to recite "Love the Lord your God" from infancy. In fact, that was what Deu 6:4-9 was all about-parents teaching their children to give God all the love they have.

The study of theology is fine if it is kept in perspective. But we must never allow our research to obscure God's revelation. The most profound theological truths are these: God loves me and I must love God.

At the end of every December, when Father Time’s odometer is ready to click in another year, experts seem compelled to forecast what the coming year will brings. economists read their econometric entrails and predict hard times or happy days accordingly; psychics announce that this is the year the San Andreas fault will pitch California into the sea. Well, before you believe any of this year’s predictions, consider these vintage prognostications:

Octave Chanute, aviation pioneer, in 1904: “The [flying] machine will eventually be fast; they will be used in sport, but they are not to be thought of as commercial carriers.”

The Literary Digest, 1889: “The ordinary ‘horseless carriage’ is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never come into as common use as the bicycle.”

Thomas Edison, on electricity in the home: “Just as certain as death, [George] Westinghouse will kill a customer within six months after he puts in a system of any size.”

Lt. Joseph C. Ives, Corps of Topographical Engineers, 1861, on the Grand Canyon: “[It] is, of course, altogether valueless…Ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality.”

Science Digest, August 1948: “Landing and moving around on the moon offer so many serious problems for human beings that it may take science another 200 years to lick them.”

Physicist and mathematician Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), who seemed to have a corner on the wrongheaded one-liner in his day: “X rays are a hoax.” “Aircraft flight is impossible.” “Radio has no future.” - Paul Dickson, The Future File, Rawson Associates, Reader’s Digest, January, 1996, p. 90.

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” - Lord Kelvin, President Royal Society

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” - Charles H. Duell, Director of U.S. Patent Office, 1899

“Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.” - Grover Cleveland, 1905

“There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom.” - Robert Milikan, Nobel Laureate in Physics, 1923

“Who the heck wants to hear actors talk?” Harry M. Warner, Warner Bros. Pictures, 1927, quoted in Bits & Pieces, March 30, 1995, pp. 9-10

Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility—a development which we should waste little time dreaming about. - Lee de Forest, 1926, inventor of the cathode ray tube.

I think there is a world market for about five computers. - Thomas J. Watson, 1943, Chairman of the Board of IBM

We don’t think the Beatles will do anything in their market. Guitar groups are on their way out. Recording company expert, 1962

Paul Davies quit the Anglican Church as a teenager, convinced that “science offers a surer path to God than religion.” The 48-year-old Australian physicist’s studies of the origins of the universe led him to conclude: “The world is not only ordered by order in an intelligible way.” Last week, Davies won the $1 million Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion for breaching the barrier between religion and science. Yet he is not conventionally religious. “I hesitate to use the word God,” he says, “but … I have come to the conclusion that there is some purpose to it.”

Ambition usually progresses through the following stages: to be like Dad…to be famous…to be a millionaire…to make enough to pay the bills…to hang on long enough to draw a pension.

The oft-reported claims that Americans are promiscuous and that 10 percent are exclusively homosexual are false, according to a new University of Chicago study. Sociologist Tom W. Smith of the Univ. of Chicago National Opinion Research Corporation (NORC) says his study clearly shows the vast majority of Americans are heterosexual and unlikely to engage in behavior that would put them at risk for AIDS.

The study shows 93 percent of the population has been exclusively heterosexual since the age of 18. Five to 6 percent consider themselves bisexual. And only 1 percent are exclusively homosexual. Smith also found that only 6.8 percent of the population engaged in sexual activity of any kind that would put them at risk of AIDS.

Twenty-one percent of committed Promise Keepers in April 1996 reported that purity (Promise 3) was the most difficult to keep.

If you belong to a men’s group, you may not be surprised by the results of a survey of 1,500 men at the Promise Keepers gatherings last summer. Fifty-one percent of the sample reported a struggle with masturbation, and 51 percent also fantasize about having sex with women other than their wives. Seventy-four percent reported that their sexual thoughts concern them. Fifteen percent reported they were sexually unfaithful to their spouse. About 33 percent reported enjoyment in looking regularly at sexually oriented material, including videos and magazines.

Some have argued that the doctrine of a bodily resurrection was unknown to the Israelites of the Old Testament. In fact, this denial was a cardinal doctrine of the sect of the Sadducees at the time of Christ (Matthew 22:23).

Our text, however, makes it clear that this promise has always been known to the people of God. Long before Isaiah’s time, Job had said: “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And…in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25,26). After the time of Isaiah, the promise was still known. “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). Such promises were not referring to some vague “immortality of the soul,” as taught in pagan religions, but to resurrection of the body!

First, however, the Creator must become man, die for the sins of the world, and defeat death by His own bodily resurrection. In our text, in fact, Christ is saying that Old Testament believers would be raised “together with my dead body.” This was literally fulfilled when “the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many” (Matthew 27:52,53). Then, when Jesus first ascended to heaven (John 20:17), He led those who had been in “captivity” in the grave with Him into heaven (Ephesians 4:8). All who have trusted Christ in the Christian era will likewise be raised from the dead when He comes again. He has defeated death and has promised, “because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19). HMM

As the wealthy oil tycoon lay on his deathbed, his pastor talked of God’s healing power. “Pastor,” he gasped, “if God heals me, I’ll give the church a million dollars.” Miraculously, the man revived and within a few short weeks was out of the hospital.

One day, several months later, he and the pastor chatted on the sidewalk in front of a hardware store. “You know,” the pastor said, “when you were in the hospital dying, you promised to give the church a million dollars if you got well. We haven’t got it yet.”

“Did I say that?” the tycoon asked. “I guess that goes to show how sick I really was!”

You can’t break God’s promises by leaning on them!

1. God’s presence—Heb. 13:5

2. God’s protection—Gen 15:1

3. God’s power—Isa 41:10

4. God’s provision—Isa 41:10

5. God’s leading—John 10:4

6. God’s purposes—Jer. 29:11

7. God’s rest—Matt. 11:38

8. God’s cleansing—I John 1:9

9. God’s goodness—Psalm 84:11

10. God’s faithfulness—I Sam. 12:22

11. God’s guidance—Psalm 25:9

12. God’s wise plan—Rom. 8:28

A promise from God is a statement we can depend on with absolute confidence. Here are 12 promises for the Christian to claim.

God’s presence— “I will never leave thee” (Heb. 13:5)

God’s protection—”I am thy shield” (Gen. 15:1)

God’s power—”I will strengthen thee” (Isa. 41:10)

God’s provision—”I will help thee” (Isa. 41:10)

God’s leading—”And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them” (John 10:4)

God’s purposes— “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil” (Jer. 20:11)

God’s rest—”Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28)

God’s cleansing— “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9)

God’s goodness— “No good thing will He withhold from them that work uprightly” (Psalm 84:11)

God’s faithfulness—”The Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake” (1 Sam. 12:22)

God’s guidance—”The meek will He guide” (Psalm 25:9)

God’s wise plan—”All things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28)

The kings of Italy and Bohemia both promised safe transport and safe custody to the great pre-Reformation Bohemian reformer, John Hus. Both, however, broke their promises, leading to Hus’s martyrdom in 1415. Earlier, Thomas Wentworth had carried a document signed by King Charles I which read, “Upon the word of a king you shall not suffer in life, honour, or fortune.” It was not long, however, before Wentworth’s death warrant was signed by the same monarch!

If you want to be happy, healthy, successful, and live longer, give your spouse a kiss before you go to work each day. That’s the conclusion of a study conducted by a group of German physicians and psychologists, in cooperation with insurance companies. According to Dr. Arthur Sazbo, the study found that those who kiss their spouse each morning miss less work because of illness than those who do not. They also have fewer auto accidents on the way to work. They earn 20 to 30 percent more monthly and they live about five years more than those who don’t even give each other a peck on the cheek. The reason for this, says Dr. Sazbo, is that the kissers begin the day with a positive attitude. A kiss signifies a sort of seal of approval, offer Sazbo and his colleagues, and they believe, those who don’t experience it, for whatever reason, go out the door feeling not quite right about themselves. Whether you give this study any credence or not, an au revoir kiss every morning can do you no harm. Maybe you can expand the study and write a book, Pucker Up to Grow Rich, Feel Good, and Live Longer. It could be a best-seller.

As David Ogilvy observed in Confessions of an Advertising Man: “If you prefer to spend all your spare time growing roses or playing with your children, I like you better, but do not complain that you are not being promoted fast enough.”

It was a bright Sunday morning in 28th century London, but Robert Robinson’s mood was anything but sunny. All along the street there were people hurrying to church, but in the midst of the crowd Robinson was a lonely man. The sound of church bells reminded him of years past when his faith in God was strong and the church was an integral part of his life. It had been years since he set foot in a church—years of wandering, disillusionment, and gradual defection from the God he once loved. That love for God—once fiery and passionate—had slowly burned out within him, leaving him dark and cold inside.

Robinson heard the clip-clop, clip-clop of a horse-drawn cab approaching behind him. Turning, he lifted his hand to hail the driver. But then he saw that the cab was occupied by a young woman dressed in finery for the Lord’s Day. He waved the driver on, but the woman in the carriage ordered the carriage to be stopped.

“Sir, I’d be happy to share this carriage with you,” she said to Robinson. “Are you going to church?” Robinson was about to decline, then he paused. “Yes,” he said at last. “I am going to church.” He stepped into the carriage and sat down beside the young woman.

As the carriage rolled forward Robert Robinson and the woman exchanged introductions. There was a flash of recognition in her eyes when he stated his name. “That’s an interesting coincidence,” she said, reaching into her purse. She withdrew a small book of inspirational verse, opened it to a ribbon-bookmark, and handed the book to him. “I was just reading a verse by a poet named Robert Robinson. Could it be…?”

He took the book, nodding. “Yes, I wrote these words years ago.”

“Oh, how wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Imagine! I’m sharing a carriage with the author of these very lines!”

But Robinson barely heard her. He was absorbed in the words he was reading. They were words that would one day be set to music and become a great hymn of the faith, familiar to generations of Christians:

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace’

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

His eyes slipped to the bottom of the page where he read:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it—

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

He could barely read the last few lines through the tears that brimmed in his eyes. “I wrote these words—and I’ve lived these words. ‘Prone to wander…prone to leave the God I love.’”

The woman suddenly understood. “You also wrote, ‘Here’s my heart, O take and seal it.’ You can offer your heart again to God, Mr. Robinson. It’s not too late.”

And it wasn’t too late for Robert Robinson. In that moment he turned his heart back to God and walked with him the rest of his days.